No, you were critical of this specific contract, then tied it to two other past contracts, then made the same point about Oshie, then pointed with dissatisfaction at the LTIR numbers, then the rare dead cap we took on to rid ourselves of our worst contract, and so on.
So no, you didn't say "GMBM is a poor GM." You just pointed to like 8 examples of his work that you find... subpar? Shitty? Ill-advised? Dumb?
You pick the word and equivocate however you'd like. You commented on a thing, we brought in context because that's how conversations go, then you broadened your point accordingly. I didn't say you think he's a poor GM. I said you were using hindsight to bag on him, because you were. It would've taken a crystal ball or a time machine to outright avoid some of the missteps you alluded to.
Okay, but there's some hubris in that, Hive. The owner of the club publicly announced that this is what we were going to be doing, years ago now. Like it or not, it's the GM's job to execute that gameplan. You not liking it is immaterial. Lots of us would have preferred a more decisive path. This isn't Neverland or Utopia. We have to play the hand we're dealt, and I think -- without the benefit of hindsight -- that Mac has done a pretty great job within those boundaries.
And that has nothing to do with the length of Roy's contract. He'd have gotten that much term anywhere. You can risk losing him to another team arguing over one less year, or you can bite the bullet, admit that your GM has a pretty good track record of handling those types of issues, and improve your team.
If you want nothing but perfect contracts your team is going to suck. Perpetually.
It might. But it hasn't yet, and it won't until this guy proves that he's consistently a shit player now. There's a real chance that won't happen; that we'll get decent value. In the meantime, this coming season his hit is mitigated by the 5.25m his presence saved us and the 3.9m we're saving on the guy he's replacing. That covers the entirety of his salary for the year, so maybe give it that time to work out one way or another before you decide it's awful. (And maybe concede that it's the only way we were going to get a center of that potential caliber without giving up major assets or overpaying in free agency.)
So? We'd all prefer if he were capable of playing the way that he plays when he's healthy enough to suit up, for the full length of his deal. But that's not what happened. Turns out him playing like the rambunctious warrior we love cut his time short. The club deemed him untouchable -- the kind of Cap they want to retire here, cap be damned. They felt they owed him that, and the fans adore him, so we're sucking it up and dealing with an ending more bitter than the one we'd like. Not you though...
...no. You're immune to such attachments. Oshie didn't qualify for "untouchable status" to you. And you're not alone there, for sure. Maybe it was a borderline case, but I personally think he got lumped in to a certain extent because, "Hey, we already have $19 million of our cap tied up in guys we consider untouchable, and Carlson'll end up feeling like we're tacking on $8m more at some point. Oshie's going to fall in that same window and has the same type of regard around town, so why not?"
Yes, Hive, we all knew that Oshie's decline was happening. We could see it, too. And we know that you would have pulled the trigger at the exact right moment and made the exact right trade, but we were too sentimental for all that. Would that we were as level-headed as you are...
And I don't know why you feel the need to constantly remind us that we should substitute our own judgment for yours. I agree with Hive sometimes. There's clearly a lot of knowledge behind his arguments. We don't reach the same conclusions a lot of the time and we can both be exhausting, cantankerous pricks sometimes, but I don't think that's made better by putting him on Ignore and pretending my shit don't stink.
I come here for the conversation, and sometimes it ain't pretty. Heated discourse doesn't bother me. I kinda like it sometimes. Sue me.
Yeah, remember when we gleefully sent Brouwer packing for Oshie, then he pulled the bitch move and aired some dirty laundry to the press? Maybe it was about Semin? I forget the details, but I do remember it being a bummer because I kinda liked Brouwer and wouldn't have thought he'd punk out like that. It might've not even been after he was traded...